Download 15 mate choice

12/3/2012
Examples of Female Choice
green frogs
common terns
males with denselyvegetated territories where
eggs laid
males bringing lots of food
A. Mate competition
mottled sculpins
large males
B. Mate choice
smooth newts
vigorously courting males
elephant seals
high-status males
three-spined
sticklebacks
house finches
(rare) red males
Mechanisms of Sexual Selection
genetically-less-related
males
Direct vs. Indirect Benefits
I. Benefits of mate choice
A. Direct benefits
males offer resource
B. Indirect benefits
males offer only sperm
green frogs
common terns
males with denselyvegetated territories where
eggs laid
males bringing lots of food
mottled sculpins
large males
smooth newts
vigorously courting males
elephant seals
high-status males
three-spined
sticklebacks
house finches
(rare) red males
genetically-less-related
males
A. Direct benefits
1. access to breeding site
A. Direct benefits
e.g., female bullfrogs enter territories of
calling males, mate and lay eggs;
1.access to breeding site
females prefer certain territories and thus
certain territory-holders.
2.access to food
why? because leech predation on young is
3.nuptial gifts
lower in favored territories.
Assessment made partly on
basis of male’s call.
bullfrog
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A. Direct benefits (cont’d)
2. access to food
e.g., male Anthidium bees
defend patches of flowers,
& mate in exchange for
access to pollen and nectar.
In toads, larger toads have calls that are lower in
pitch.
Females mate preferentially
with males controlling richer
patches.
A. Direct benefits (cont’d)
3. “nuptial gifts”
a. food for female
e.g., in roadrunners, males offer lizards
or other snacks to females
e.g., in hangingflies, males offer females
a gift of insect prey
In hangingflies, bigger prey may result in longer
copulation.
A.Direct benefits (cont’d)
3. nuptial gifts
b. food for female’s young
e.g., males transfer protein to female
which is incorporated into eggs.
Longer copulations result in more sperm transferred.
grasshoppers
butterflies
fruit flies
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3. nuptial gifts (cont’d)
Chandreyee Mitra (Papaj lab)
b. food for female’s young
e.g., in some butterflies, males 'puddle'
and take up sodium. Sodium transferred
with sperm and incorporated into eggs.
puddling by male
swallowtail
butterfly
Asking questions such as:
• Do females mate more with males who
have puddled? How can they know?
• Do offspring of puddling males survive
better?
puddling by male
pipevine swallowtail
butterflies and
mimics
• Female blister beetles eat cantharidin secretion offered
by male.
• Females do not mate with males lacking secretion.
Are butterflies attracted to each other? Do they copy other
species? (at least 4 species here)
fangs
The ultimate nuptial gift…
In redback spiders, male
somersaults into female’s
jaws and is eaten.
• Cantharidin ends up in female’s eggs and defends eggs
from predators.
Can sexual cannibalism benefit the MALE?
Part 1. Copulation Duration Effects
CHOMP!!
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Can sexual cannibalism benefit the MALE?
Part 2. The Alternative
RESULTS
Cannibalism increases copulation duration
Increased duration leads to increased paternity
BUT…
Increased duration does not result in increased
sperm transfer
Perhaps something in seminal fluid?
The adaptive male sacrifice hypothesis
implies that males that escape and attempt
to mate again are not successful.
FIELD RESULTS
The probability of finding a
small for a male.
2nd
female is very
Reason – high predation during mate search.
Summary
1. Males that engage in suicide
copulate for a longer time.
2. Males that do not engage in suicide
are unlikely to find another female.
Both factors favor suicidal behavior in
males.
firefly
Firefly fellows flash in flight;
females in foliage then flash to favored fellows.
flashing followed by… MATING.
During mating, males transfer protein-rich
spermatophore.
Males that flash longer transfer larger
spermatophores.
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B. Indirect Benefits
Why do females sometimes show preferences
for males that offer nothing but sperm?
Females respond more to longer flashes…
What indirect benefits do such males offer?
… but effect disappears if females are
fed to satiation.
Long flash is honest indicator of size of nuptial gift.
(but what keeps it honest??)
Procedure:
“Good Genes” Hypothesis
Females choose mates whose genes improve their
offspring’s fitness.
1. Allow Drosophila melanogaster females to choose
mate(s) from among 5 males.
Prediction:
2. Force other females to mate with a randomlyselected male.
Females allowed to choose males with ‘good genes’
produce more fit offspring than females not allowed
to choose.
3. Let females lay eggs and keep track of offspring
survival.
vs.
gray treefrog
house mouse
barn swallow
A “Re-Do” in House Mice
Result:
Offspring of females allowed to choose had
higher survival than offspring of females
not allowed to choose.
Each female is given choice. Males designated as
preferred (P) or nonpreferred (NP).
BUT…
What about male-male competition?
And why couldn’t experiment be
replicated?
Females permitted to mate with either P male or NP
male.
Offspring production and viability then monitored for
both treatment groups.
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Some Results:
Evidently, females choose males with ‘good genes’.
1. P females produced more litters.
How can females determine if a male has good
genes?
2. Survival greater for P offspring.
Hey,
look at
me!!
3. P male offspring had larger home ranges.
4. P male offspring proved dominant in 12 of 16
trials.
Hypothesis:
5. P offspring built more complete nests.
They sing, they dance, they display
ornaments.
Males indicate their quality in some
way.
(from Drickamer et al. 2000)
Case Study: Call duration in Hyla versicolor
Some males have long calls:
Call duration in Hyla versicolor and offspring
viability
Fitness
Measure
Some males have short calls:
High Food
Low Food
Larval Growth
Long Callers >
Short Callers
Long Callers >
Short Callers
Larval Survival
No Difference
No Difference
Eastern gray treefrog
green form
In choice tests, females
prefer long calls over
short calls by 3:1.
Welch et al., 1996 data
Special case of good genes models: Species
Recognition
Mating with a member of another species usually results in
lower fitness.
Expect strong selection for individuals to choose mates of
the right species.
Tungara frog, Engystomops pustulosus; formerly known as Physalaemus pustulosus
Tungara frog males have a two-part call.
The whine is used to identify species. The chuck
is used to identify quality of male of the same
species.
liger
mule
basic
series
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Individuals chose less related partners
AVERAGE RELATEDNESS
MONTANA 1995 - 2003
house finch
A special kind of mate choice based on ‘good
genes’:
Genes Different Than Your Own
F2,93 = 8.33, p < 0.001
0.1
0.0
-0.1
-0.2
EX
R
AI
AT
E
M
AP
L
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BL
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photos by A. Badyaev
Evidently, females may choose mates of high
genetic quality.
Offspring of genetically complementary
Fitness
function with data
points
mates had
increased
survival
dotted lines are +/- 1 standard error of prediction
MONTANA
1995 – 2003, N = 63 offspring
SURVIVAL TO RECRUITMENT
TR
C
LA
AI
SO
AV
Presenting, work by Kevin Oh and Alex Badyaev
on mate choice and genetic complementarity in
house finches
0.2
But… now two more problems:
1.000
How can mate choice for ‘good genes’ lead to
exaggerated male traits?
0.800
0.600
What prevents a male from cheating, and
pretending to be of high genetic quality?
0.400
0.200
0.000
-0.175
-0.082
MORE DIVERSE
0.011
0.104
0.197
0.290
Hmm… if I look C-GA-G-T, will she know
I’m really G-T-T-G-A?
LESS DIVERSE
INTERNAL RELATEDNESS
In peacocks, the
eyes have it…
Former EEB student,
Ed Scholes
http://www.bbcearth.com/programmes/atte
nborough-in-paradise/
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/0
7/birds-of-paradise/video-map-interactive
http://www.thebirdsofparadise.org/thebirds
ofparadise.org/About.html
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Zahavi’s Handicap Hypothesis
Exaggerated male traits are essentially
handicaps.
At first glance, Zahavi’s
idea seemed ridiculous.
Wow, how
attractive am
I!!
Female prefer males with these handicaps…
… because such males have demonstrated an
ability to survive despite their handicaps!
But Zahavi’s handicap model can work…
Tail Length in Barn Swallows and Parasite Resistance
… if signals used are costly, such that only the
highest quality male can pay the cost of the very
longest tail.
Darn! These
styrofoam antlers
seemed like such a
good idea…
Male tails are longer than female tails.
Females prefer long-tailed males
1. Females prefer to mate with males with
especially long tails.
Long Tails as Indicator of Resistance
to Parasites
Cross-fostering Experiment:
2. Females that mated with short-tailed males
were more likely to engage in extra-pair
copulations.
Half of progeny in a nest exchanged with progeny
from other nests.
3. Long-tailed males were more likely to engage in
extra-pair copulations.
# parasitic mites surveyed on each progeny over
time.
So what’s the big deal with long tails?
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The “Bright Birds and
Parasites” Model
Long Tails Indicate Resistance to
Parasitic Mites
P < 0.001
Male tail length
other offspring
No. mites on other offspring
No. mites on own offspring
own offspring
1. selection favors females who choose parasite-resistant
males.
2. parasite resistance difficult to assess directly, but
parasitized birds have dull plumage.
Not significant
Male tail length
Cross-fostering results: mite load inversely
correlated with length of male’s tail, but only for
biological offspring.
3. selection favors females who choose males with bright
plumage.
4. parasites evolve ways to defeat resistance.
5. selection favors females who choose males with still
brighter plumage.
coevolution between host and parasite leads to
brighter and brighter males.
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